Day: February 21, 2018

South Korea said on Wednesday it is signing free trade agreements with five Central American nations aimed at boosting market access for the Korean auto sector and electronics makers.

Trade minister Kim Hyun-chong will meet representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama in Seoul on Wednesday to sign five separate bilateral pacts which will eliminate duties on about 95 percent of traded goods and services, Korea’s trade ministry said in an e-mailed statement.

The agreements are subject to parliamentary approval in each country, and is likely to take effect at different times depending on the ratification process.

The five trade pacts open South Korea to key Central American countries after its deals with the U.S., the European Union and China helped boost exports.

“The South Korea-Central America free trade deals will enable the countries to build a more comprehensive, strategic partnerships going forward,” Kim said.

The ministry expects the five deals to accelerate South Korea’s economic growth by an overall 0.02 percent in the next 10 years, by boosting exports of cars, steel, cosmetics products, and auto components.
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President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday that Venezuela had received $735 million in the first day of a pre-sale of the country’s “petro” cryptocurrency, aimed at pulling the country out of an economic tailspin.

Maduro is hoping the petro will allow the ailing OPEC member to skirt U.S. sanctions as the bolivar currency plunges to record lows and it struggles with hyperinflation and a collapsing socialist economy.

Blockchain experts have warned the petro is unlikely to attract significant investment. Opposition leaders have said the sale constitutes an illegal debt issuance that circumvents Venezuela’s majority-opposition legislature, and the U.S. Treasury Department has warned it may violate sanctions levied last year.

Maduro did not give details about the initial investors and there was no evidence presented for his figure. He added that tourism, some gasoline sales and some oil transactions could be made in petro.

“Today, a cryptocurrency is being born that can take on Superman,” said Maduro, using the comic character to refer to the United States, as he was flanked by mining rigs in a state television address.

The official website for the petro on Tuesday published a guide to setting up a virtual wallet to hold the cryptocurrency.

The cryptocurrency goes public next month.

Venezuelan Cryptocurrency Superintendent Carlos Vargas last week said the government was expecting to draw investors in Turkey, Qatar, the United States and Europe.

The value of the entire petro issuance of 100 million tokens would be just over $6 billion, according to details given by Maduro in recent months, though no new price information was provided Tuesday.

The tokens will each be valued at and backed by a barrel of Venezuelan crude oil, Maduro has said.

Advisers working for the government have in the past recommended that 38.4 percent of the petros should be sold in a private auction at a discount of 60 percent.

Maduro says his government is the victim of an “economic war” led by opposition politicians with the help of the government of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Sanctions levied last year by Washington block U.S. banks and investors from acquiring newly issued Venezuelan debt, effectively preventing the nation from borrowing abroad to bring in new hard currency or refinance existing debt.

The petro will not be a token on the Ethereum network, as was previously disclosed in a whitepaper provided by the government.
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There are no talks between China and the separatists from Pakistan’s Baluchistan province regarding the protection of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a senator from the province told VOA.

First reported by The Financial Times, several newspapers in Pakistan said that China has been quietly holding talks with Baluch (natives of Baluchistan) militants for more than five years in an effort to protect the $60 billion worth of infrastructure projects it is financing.

CPEC is a Chinese-funded project. Upon completion, this 3,000-km-long project will connect China with Pakistan through rail, road pipelines and an optical cable fiber network. Through CPEC, China will gain access to the Arabian Sea. 

Pakistan’s Baluchistan province is at the heart of the CPEC because the project stretches between China’s Xinjiang region and Pakistan’s Gawadar port, which is located in the Baluchistan province.

Baluchistan is the poorest and least-developed province in Pakistan, and it has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch separatist groups that demand a greater share of the province’s resources. There are fears in the country that in an attempt to push for their demands, these separatist groups can target the CPEC project. Some media reports suggest the Chinese government is holding talks with them for the protection of the project.  

“The Chinese have quietly made a lot of progress,” one Pakistani official told The Financial Times. “Even though separatists occasionally try to carry out the odd attack, they are not making a forceful push.”

But Mir Kabir Muhammad Shahi, a member of the Pakistan senate, said it’s not China’s job to hold talks with Baluch separatists.

“I, or other parliamentarians, are not aware of this development, and it’s only Pakistan’s government parliament right to hold talks with Baluch separatists,” he said.

Sher Muhammad Bugti, a representative of the Baluch Republican Party separatist group, also denied having any negotiations with China. Talking to VOA Deewa from his exile in Switzerland, Bugti said separatists cannot hold talks with China.

“We do not know of any talks, nor have we been contacted (by China),” he said.

Groups such as the Baluch Republican Party are against the CPEC, and say the project is aimed at plundering the resources and grabbing the land of their province. But the Pakistani government says CPEC is a game changer in the region, and it will bring prosperity to the whole country. 

Political analyst Zafar Jaspal did not rule out the possibility of China’s involvement with locals, but added that it could not be direct. 

“I do not think China would have directly contacted the insurgents. I believe any contact the Chinese would make would be through the government of Pakistan.” 

The Financial Times claimed that the Pakistani officials welcomed the talks between Baluch rebels and Chinese envoys, even if they do not know the details of what has been discussed.

“Ultimately, if there’s peace in Baluchistan, that will benefit both of us,” said one official in Islamabad.

VOA Deewa’s Aurangzeb Khan contributed to this report.
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